StarCraft II: European Pros Battle for Spot on World All-Star Team

The European qualifiers for the GSL World Championships continues tonight with four prominent European pros battling for a spot on the World All-Star Team to face Korea's best at IPL5.

NERCHIO v. HASUOBS

Artur "Nerchio" Bloch burst onto the scene in 2010 by competing in a number of online weekly cups, making a name for himself on the European server. Since then, he has established himself as one of the most successful foreign Zergs due to his impressive results, ZvZ expertise, and outspoken personality.

Earlier this year, Nerchio competed at HomeStory Cup IV in Germany, where he topped his group stages but failed to make it past the quarterfinals. Nerchio had a chance for redemption at the next HomeStory Cup, where he again advanced first in his group stages. In the finals, Nerchio defeated YongHwa (4-1) to win HSCV.

More recently, Nerchio competed at IEM Season VII Global Challenge Cologne, where he advanced to finals by taking out top Koreans such as MC and viOLet. There, he faced Mvp. He ended up taking second place after losing to Mvp (3-1).

Dennis "HasuObs" Schneider is a German Protoss player on mousesports. Before playing the StarCraft II Beta, HasuObs was a competitive Warcraft 3 player. He gained recognition as one of ten invitees to the IEM Season V Global Challenge Cologne, which was the first major live SCII event in Europe. In June of this year, HasuObs competed in the World Championships Series Germany Nationals, where he placed second after losing to Socke, who came from the loser bracket.

HasuObs's playstyle is characterized by his tendency to build toward High Templar as opposed to the highly popular Colossi. He prefers long macro games, during which he can outclass his opponents with refined micro and an overwhelming economy.

Prediction: Nerchio 2 > 0 HasuObs

There is a reason why Nerchio is considered one of the best foreigners in the world. He is a decision-oriented player known for excellent army positioning and timing attacks that has bested champions. Not to mention he has an extremely strong ZvP, which may prove a problem for HasuObs.

TLO v. DIMAGA

It's a battle of fan favorites with the next qualifier match. Dario "TLO" Wünsch, a Zerg player from Germany, has one of the largest fanbases in the industry due his amiable personality and his unorthodox playstyle, which gained an enormous amount of attention during the beta period. Such creativity and ingenuity set him apart from other players and garnered him a number of invites to tournaments and a spot on Team Liquid.

His most recent appearance was at the ASUS ROG The GD Invitational, where he swept his group stage (3-0), defeating players such as Kas, elfi, and MaNa. TLO made it to the semifinals but ended up placing 3rd/4th overall.

Dmytro "DIMAGA" Filipchuk, a Ukrainian Zerg player on mTw, is also well-loved in the community. Like TLO, he enjoyed immense success during the beta period by winning a number of weekly tournaments and popularizing the aggressive use of banelings. His popularity and success earned him several invites to events such as Day[9]'s King of the Beta.

DIMAGA is extremely active in the European scene and in online cups such as the MSI Pro Cups and ZOTAC Cups. His most recent placing in a premier tournament was at DreamHack Summer 2012, where he defeated Protosser (2-0), NaNiwa (2-1), and fraer (2-1) to meet MaNa in the finals. He placed second after losing (1-3).

Prediction: DIMAGA 2 > 1 TLO

The series will be extremely close as players both excel in ZvZ, and the match-up is often a tossup. DIMAGA has the slight edge based on history: he represented the World in last year's GSL World Champions, during which he became the first person to beat GSL Champion NesTea in a televised ZvZ.

Be sure to tune in to see which of these four Europeans takes another step closer to being on the World All-Star team at the GSL World Championships.